Effects of a web-based education program for nurses using medical malpractice cases: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Education on legal obligations in healthcare related to medical malpractice is insufficient, which has the potential to reduce patient safety. Nurses need to improve their understanding of legal obligations in order to enhance patient safety. However, no easily accessible education program has been developed that covers both the concepts of legal obligations and patient safety.

Objective: This study sought to develop a web-based education program using medical malpractice cases and to evaluate the effectiveness with regard to legal obligations and patient safety competency of nurses.

Design: The study design was a randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of a newly-developed web-based education program. Participants and setting: Seven experts and 19 learners evaluated the developed program. One hundred eighteen nurses working in three hospitals were randomly assigned to the intervention group (N = 59) and the control group (N = 59).

Methods: The web-based program was developed using the analysis-design-development-implementation-evaluation model and evaluated by experts and learners. Data were collected from January to May 2019. The intervention was the five-week web-based education program. The post-test was conducted five weeks after the pre-test in the control and intervention groups.

Results: The web-based program consisted of two modules on theoretical knowledge and seven modules on medical malpractice cases. The findings demonstrated significant differences in knowledge and cognition of legal obligations and patient safety competency between the control and intervention groups after the five-week intervention.

Conclusion: A web-based education program on medical malpractice cases enhanced nurses' awareness of legal obligations and patient safety competency. Therefore, this web-based educational program should be organized as an online continuing education program for clinical nurses. It will improve awareness of patient safety by clearly specifying the relationship between legal obligations and root causes of medical errors from various perspectives.